Month: December 2018

This will be the last post for the year. We will begin NZ Education News again on Monday 14 January 2019. Thank you for your support in following NZ Education News, we hope you find it useful in keeping up to date on education news in Aotearoa New Zealand. If you have any ideas or suggestions for this blog please drop us a comment. Keep an eye out in the new year as there could be some changes to our blog.

We wish you and your family a happy and safe Christmas and New Year. We hope that you can recharge and enjoy your well-deserved break these holidays. We look forward to seeing you again in 2019.

A major national agricultural training facility has gone into liquidation, affecting 250 jobs and 2850 students. Wairarapa-based Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, which has 11 campuses across the country, was placed in Interim Liquidation by the High Court on Wednesday.

Opinion

A smaller proportion of secondary school students is learning languages now than at any other time in the past 100 years. This means the New Zealand education system is failing to give students the cognitive development skills language study offers, or the professional and social competence that linguistic capabilities provide.

Media releases

OMG Solutions: To address digital inequality and tech sector diversity, the OMGTech! Mana Tangata programme pairs up kids from communities that are not well represented in tech with industry mentors who are currently working in the science and technology sector.

Make Lemonade: New Zealand needs to seize new opportunities in 2019 and harness new AI technologies to deliver positive social and environmental outcomes, AI Forum New Zealand executive director Ben Reid says.

Opinion

Debate has now kicked off over the Government’s most radical reforms to date – the overhaul of the way our schools are run.

With the release of the “Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce” proposals for change, there is now a polarised and highly-ideological battle involving important values that will inform the future of education in this country. Today I’ll round up opposition so far to the proposed reforms and tomorrow’s column will look at the case in favour of the reforms.

Equality, fairness, and cooperation look set to become the priorities underpinning the operations of the schooling system.

They’re the values that are explicit in the radical new proposals to overhaul education and roll back the “neoliberal” Tomorrow’s Schools model that was imposed in the 1980s.The status quo, based on competition and a business model is deemed to have failed, creating inequality and poor outcomes.

If Minister of Education Chris Hipkins needs confirmation that the Tomorrow’s Schools Taskforce report had got it right, the negative comments of several prominent Auckland principals will have him absolutely convinced the review is on the right track.

Media releases

NZGovt: A new service will be trialled in Napier next year to help younger students at risk of disconnection from school because of suspension, expulsion and non-attendance, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin has announced. “The prototype, the Napier Student Managed Moved Service, is the first in New Zealand to be designed for primary rather than secondary school students,” says Tracey Martin.

NZGovt: Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta has appointed Dr Hinurewa Poutu (Ngāti Rangi, Te Āti Haunui a Pāpārangi, Ngāti Maniapoto) to the Board of Te Mātāwai for a three year term. “Dr Poutu brings a rangatahi voice to the Board,” said Hon Nanaia Mahuta.

A cut to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) funding by the Ministry of Education has left school principals angry and scrambling to find ways to fund ESOL teachers they have already employed for 2019.

A three-part Herald series starting today investigates why schools are struggling to cope with kids who are “wired differently”. Tomorrow we report on the brain science of learning differences, and on Wednesday we ask how we could do better.

(Australian content) Research suggests children can be reliably diagnosed with autism before the age of two. It also shows that many of the behavioural symptoms of autism are present before the age of one.

To stop drowning in our disturbing statistics, New Zealand needs to change four things now: funding, the national curriculum, behaviours toward the water, and aiding minority groups over-represented in data, Water Safety NZ CEO John Mills says.

A Harvard University education expert says the school curriculum “created a century ago” needs updating, but most local high-school principals do not agree. Dr Tony Wagner, a senior research fellow at Harvard University…

School leaders are “cautiously optimistic” about radical reforms recommended by an independent taskforce last week, which said there was no evidence self-governance had helped schools improve equity or lift student achievement.

Early Childhood Council: Delivered a petition to Parliament seeking scrutiny of the way the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is applied to Pasifika early childhood education teachers.

Yolande Franke, principal of Howick Intermediate School is one of the 15 inspirational educators nominated from 2000 applications for the Australian Scholarship Grant (ASG) National Excellence in Teaching Award.

On Wednesday morning, the ministry claimed it had received more than 5800 applications from overseas teachers to work in New Zealand, “with hundreds currently making their way through the recruitment pipeline”. That is about 2800 more applications than in mid-November. Schools have hired 150 overseas applicants through ministry recruitment agents – 50 more than last month.

Pepper the Robot made history today as it took its place before MPs to answer questions about preparing children for the fourth industrial revolution. The robot, “a resident” of Middlesex University, was even given a name label on the desk as it fielded questions from members of the Commons education select committee.

Opinion

The report by the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Task Force has been described as “a major shake-up” to the administration and governance of schools. The proposed changes could have some real benefits for school trustees and principals.

Media releases

NZGovt: The Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce is proposing significant changes to the way our schools are run, governed, and managed to ensure every student receives the best quality education in future, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said.

The report, which follows five months of nationwide consultation, says the Board of Trustees model has created a ‘my school’ mentality of unhealthy competition that has led to inequity. If this is not addressed through a transformational change, the economic and social consequences will be dire.

“The hubs would see a major reduction in the power and duties of boards of trustees and parents in our education system, including taking responsibility for expulsions, final decision making rights on enrolments and zoning, and the employment of principals.”

Media releases

Human Rights Commission: The Human Rights Commission welcomes the release of the Tomorrows Schools Independent Taskforce: “Our schooling futures: Stronger Together’ Report. Acting Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero says the recommendations in the report are an opportunity to create an education system that is innovative, flexible and focused on collaboration rather than in competition.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins says there is still no agreement on how to change the senior school exam system and it will not change before 2020 “at the earliest”. He told a “co-design lab” in Wellington that New Zealanders clearly didn’t all agree yet on how to change the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

Dr Lucy Hone is on a mission get resilience training into New Zealand schools* – and she’s starting with Christchurch. The New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience director has led five wellbeing hui with staff from all 33 Greater Christchurch high schools this year.

The government is cracking down on religious education classes with new guidelines for schools, but the secular group which pushed for change still isn’t happy. The Secular Education Network has been lobbying for more than a decade for the classes to be banned, and its supporters have swamped the Ministry of Education with complaints.

Media releases

Teaching and Learning Research Initiative: The Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) supports partnerships between researchers and educators by funding projects expected to improve outcomes for learners.

This year’s funding of over $1.4 million has been allocated to six projects, one in the early childhood education sector and five in the school sector.

Ministry of Education: “NZEI members have voted to reject the Ministry’s revised offer to settle primary principals’ and teachers’ collective agreements. We now invite NZEI to return to the bargaining table to discuss options for settling the collective to meet their member’s priorities within the $698 million package.”

NZGovt: New rates for the levy paid by international education providers balance their interests with the need to both promote the sector and address failures when they occur, Education Minister Chris Hipkins has said. The Export Education Levy (EEL) is collected from providers to fund a broad range of activities including marketing and promotion. It also funds reimbursements for international students caught out by Private Training Establishment (PTE) programme and provider closures.

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This blog is New Zealand Council for Educational Research's media monitoring site. The purpose of this blog is to provide readers with a daily listing of all education related stories that appear in New Zealand’s media space. The news content, editorials, or items listed on these pages do not represent NZCER’s opinions in any shape or form.

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